Judy’s Comments (group member since Oct 01, 2015)

Judy’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Carol, I did notice a few spoilers in The Life of Crime but I probably won't remember them due to the huge number of books he discusses. He sometimes says that Book A has a similar plot twist to Book B, so if you have read one of them it may spoil the other!

Susan, I agree, a bit of predictability may help, especially with series!

I've finally finished the enormously long The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards. Very interesting, and the range of books and authors covered is astonishing, although, even in a 700-page book, not everyone can be included.

I sometimes felt there was too much for my personal taste about authors' personal lives and tragedies rather than their books. A lot of it also seems to be angled towards darker and grittier crime books, which aren't my favourites, but then again he has already written extensively about the Golden Age. Glad to have read it, anyway.

I've just finished reading the enormously long book The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators by Martin Edwards, which has a brief mention of this series.

Edwards makes the intriguing comment: "Akunin is more than merely a playful writer. He confronts Fandorin with moral ambiguities suggestive of those present in contemporary Russian society." I don't remember noticing this, but will try to bear it in mind when reading future books in the series.

Interesting thoughts, Sandy and Susan. Must agree about the unknown poison being annoying! Re the different genres, this one isn't really a whodunnit , more of a battle between two opponents.

Interesting that we get so much background on what creates the ruthless assassin - I don't usually like it when we see from the viewpoint of characters like this, but I think it works well in this book.

Yes, I'm getting on quite slowly, partly because of the level of violence - makes it hard to read much of this one at a time.

I've just reread The Moving Finger and really enjoyed it even though I remembered the plot. Looking forward to our discussion.

Just to mention, we're pausing the Maigret buddy reads after this one as it has only been Sandy and me discussing them over the last few books. We can always restart them if there is more interest in the future.

Yes, I thought this was one of the best in the series. And good point about the tramp - he's glad to get out of the household, but it's not clear what the future will hold for him now.

Susan wrote: "This is not my favourite of hers, but I do love it. Have you read Death in High Heels, which features just Charlesworth? .."

Yes, I've read that one and I really liked the glimpse of high-class fashion shops, as you say. I don't remember it in detail now - I also watched a low-budget b&w film of it but that wasn't great at all.

I've also read all the Inspector Cockrill novels - I didn't like Heads You Lose much but the rest are great. I liked Tour de Force but was disappointed by the sequel, The Three-Cornered Halo, which doesn't have a murder or much of a plot! A shame, as it features Cockrill's sister doing the detection work (he isn't in this book) which is interesting.

I've started this, not very far in yet but it's an interesting opening.

I read Marble Hall Murders recently, Sandy and Susan, or rather listened to the audiobook - very enjoyable, as with the earlier two books in this series.

It mentions in the introduction Susan posted that a financier goes fishing, but I don't remember much about that bit, I must admit.

Hope you feel better soon, Pamela, and glad to hear this one cheered you up! I also thought the 'restitooshun' was quite funny, but I felt it took up too much of the book and must agree there wasn't much of a plot - ironically, given the title!

Anyway, I found it an easy read and quite enjoyable overall. And my wish came true for one or two people to turn up who were not big fans of Mr Pargeter.

Susan wrote: "Me too, Sandy! I'm struggling a bit with this one. Nobody seems to be investigating the actual murder, which happens right at the beginning of the book!"

I'm increasingly thinking this too - I'm more than halfway through now. While I'm still enjoying the character of Mrs Pargeter, there seems to be very little about the murder so far, apart from that dramatic opening chapter.

Sandy wrote: "I am about halfway through. I find myself skimming whenever her husband is mentioned. They are always short acclaims but there are a lot of them."

Definitely! I'm wishing she would come across more people who hated her husband - or maybe someone who knows a scandal about him that will give her a shock, like a secret lover! I somehow suspect this won't happen, though.

In the first book, it seemed as if Mrs P didn't know much about her husband's criminal career, but that has increasingly ceased to be the case as she gets together with all his old cronies such as Concrete, Keyhole etc.

I'm reading part two and also finding it exciting - the shift in viewpoint is interesting, I agree.

Yes, I like her moving around too. I've read a few chapters now and am enjoying it so far despite the nicknames etc!

I've started reading this now and I see Mrs P has yet another new home in mind. She doesn't stay put for long!

I've finished this now - quite hard to put down! I thought I'd remembered the solution from a previous read, but I hadn't at all, so the ending came as a surprise!

There must be nearly as many different solutions in this book as in The Poisoned Chocolates Case - I especially like Charlesworth's solution where three of them did it, but we already know that's wrong from the list of characters at the start which says 'one was a murderer. Also it just has to be Cockrill who solves it!